NATURE 



[May 23, 191.8 



The Registrar of the Institute of Chemistry has 

 been informed by the Board of Education that " instruc- 

 tions have been given by the National Service Depart- 

 ment to defer, for the present, the calling up of any 

 student of chemistry attending a teaching institution 

 recognised by the Board of Education or the Scotch 

 Education IDepartment who has not been or is not 

 placed in Grade I. and produces a certificate from 

 the principal of the institution that he has passed his 

 matriculation or corresponding examination, and is 

 taking a full course of study in science, including 

 chemistry. The Board further understands that 

 calling-up notices (including any already issued) may, 

 if necessary, be suspended for fourteen days for pro- 

 duction of this certificate." 



A DETAILED description of the curriculum and equip- 

 ment of the Institute of Applied Electrotechnics and 

 Mechanics at the University of Toulouse is given in 

 he Gdnie Civil for April 27. The institute provides 

 a thorough course of training in electrical engineering 

 and,applied mechanics, which lasts three (and in some 

 cases four) years. The laboratories, which are 

 equipped in an up-to-date manner, provide both for 

 teaching and research. Special attention is given to 

 hydraulic and internal - gombustion engineering. 

 Separate sections are devoted to technical measure- 

 ments on electrical machines and accessories,- static 

 electricity and magnetic measurements, photometry, 

 wireless telegraphy, etc. A special water-tower and 

 auxiliary plant is installed for experiments on water 

 pressure and flow — an innovation that will prove of 

 great value in view of the proposed extension of hydro- 

 electric power in different parts of France. 



A DELEGATION of ten distinguished professors from 

 universities of Italy is visiting eight of our universi- 

 ties, namely, Oxford, London (and the Imperial Col- 

 lege), Cambridge, Manchester, Leeds, Shefheld, Edin- 

 burgh, and Glasgow. The members of the delegation 

 are : — Prof. Volterra, senator, professor of mathe- 

 matics in the University of Rome; Prof. Archangeli, 

 professor of commercial law in the University of 

 Parma; Prof. L. Bianchi, deputy, professor of 

 psychiatry in the University of Naples ; Signor V. , 

 Bianchi, deputy, specialist in nervous diseases; Prof.' 

 Columba, Rector of the University of Palermo, pro- 

 fessor of ancient history; Prof. Credaro, late Minister 

 of Public Instruction, deputy, professor of philosophy 

 in the University of Rome ; Prof. Galante, professor 

 of canon law in the University of Bologna ; Prof. 

 Giacosa, professor of bio-chemistry and physiology in 

 the University of Turin; Prof. Lori, Rector of the 

 University of Padua, professor of electro-technics, 

 president of the Societa per il Progresso delle Scienze ; 

 and Prof. Nasini, professor of chemistry in the Uni- 

 versity of Pisa. Oxford was visited last week, and 

 the visit to London began at University College on 

 Tuesday, when the Vice-Chancellor entertained the 

 delegation at dinner. On Wednesday the Imperial 

 College was visited, and the party lunched with the 

 Lord Mayor at the Mansion House. To-day (Thurs- 

 day) will be occupied with visits to King's College 

 and Bedford College and a dinner given by the Roj^al 

 Society of Literature. 



The General Education Board, founded by Mr. 

 John D. Rockefeller "to promote education within the 

 United States," will shortly issue its complete annual 

 report for the financial year 1916-17. The grants for 

 that year included the following : — Universities and 

 colleges for whites, for endowment, 237,oooL ; colleges 

 and schools for whites for current expenses, 2000L ; 

 medical education, 270,000!. ; the education of negroes, 

 68,6071. ; professors of secondary education, 6993/. ; 

 farm demonstration work in Maine (including boys' 

 NO. 2534, VOL. lOl] 



and girls' clubs), 4300!. ; farm demonstration work in 

 New Hampshire (including boys' and girls' clubs), 

 3oooi. ; educational investigation and research, io,2ooL ; 

 consolidated rural schools, 2000L ; experimental school, 

 9350^- ; the total being 628,453/. Since its foundation 

 the board has granted to colleges and universities 

 alone the total of .2,724, 152/., while those institutions 

 themselves have raised simultaneously 10,026,674!. 

 The board's gifts have assisted in increasing the re- 

 sources of 112 colleges and universities situated in 

 practically every State in the Union. Since its 

 organisation in 1902 the General Education Board has 

 appropriated for all purposes 4,271,500!. An important 

 action of the board in the past year has dealt with the 

 establishment of the medical departrfTent of the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago. The General Education Board and 

 the Rockefeller Foundation together contributed 

 400,000!. towards a total of 1,060,000!., which was 

 necessary in order to bring together in a single uni- 

 versity medical school institutions and resources 

 valued at alrfiost 3,000,000!. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, May 9.— Sir J. J. Thomson, president, 

 in the chair. — Major P. A. MacMahon and H. B. C. 

 Darling : Contribution to the theory of attraction when 

 the force varies as any power of the distance. — Sir 

 George Greenhill : Electromagnetic integrals. Starting 

 with Maxwell's M, mutual inductance of two coaxial 

 circular currents, a straightforward integration will 

 lead to the analytical expressions arising in the theory 

 of the ampere-balance current-weigher, described in 

 Phil. Trans., 1907, by Ayrton-Mather-Smith, and the 

 complicated dissections ^re not necessary, employed 

 by Viriamu Jones, Minchin, and other writers. The 

 elliptic integrals which occur are then reduced to a 

 simple standard form, capable of use with Legcndre's 

 tables of the elliptic function ; and the quadric trans- 

 formation is explained geometrically, I'equired to re- 

 concile the conflicting notation of previous treatment. 

 A re-drawing is submitted of Maxwell's figure XVII] 

 of the curves of constant M, employing the cck 

 ordinates of the confocal conies on Weir's chart. The 

 same co-ordinates are applied to a state of uniplanar 

 liquid motion, where they appear appropriate, as 

 well as to Euler's problem of the orbit under two 

 centres of force. — Dr. T. R. Merton and Prof. J. W. 

 Nicholson : Intensity relations in the spectrum of 

 helium. The paper contains the results of an experi- 

 mental investigation of the variations in distribution 

 of intensity among the lines of the helium spectrum 

 under various conditions of excitation. The intensi- 

 ties have been examined quantitatively, according to 

 the method described in previous memoirs, at various 

 assigned positions in the cathode dark space and 

 beyond, so that the variations can be determined as 

 definite functions of cathode distance. It is found 

 that the relative intensities of lines in the diffuse 

 series of helium and parhelium remain essentially the 

 same at all distances, but that striking variations 

 occur in other types of* series. The results are dis- 

 cussed (i) from the point of view of selective transfer 

 of energy in anv one series; (2) in relation to type of 

 series — diffuse, sharp, or principal; and (3) in relation 

 to the relative behaviour of the doublet and single- 

 line spectra. The spectra of mixed gases — hydrogen 

 and helium — have also been studied in the same way, 

 and it has become apparent that the phenomena pre- 

 sented bv the presence of a spectroscopic trace of one 

 of the gases are essentially different in character from 

 those presented when the gases are mixed in com- 

 parable amounts. The low-pressure spectrum of 



